Monday, October 7, 2013

T-shirt Winners and What We Learned from The Book Thief

Time for our Book Thief t-shirt drawing! We've picked three winners!

But first, in order to enter the contest, everyone had to say what they learned from this book. And I loved everyone's comments! I hadn't planned on sharing these, so I hope it's okay with you all that entered, but they were just too good not to share. Anyway, since this wasn't in the plan, I didn't ask for your blogs (if you even have one) so I haven't linked to anyone (even if I actually do know who some of you are!)

So here's what you said you learned:

Words are important and can save someone. From April

Death and life intermingle. From Taffy

I learnt that there's always a light at the end of the tunnel - as cheesy as that sounds. Just because we're going through a tough time doesn't mean it's the end of the world. There will be bad things and there will be good things. From Fatma Shahin

That sometimes it's okay to read something based on the hype. From Kristilyn

I thought it was a really interesting perspective on Nazi Germany. It made me think a lot about how hard it could have been to be a German at the time. From Katie

The biggest thing I learned was that there is beauty in the midst of destruction— pure good in the midst of pure evil. How beautiful qualities like hope, courage, and compassion can come out of terrible things like war, death, and greed. From Hannah

I learned that words have incredible power to for life or death. I also learned that life must be lived now, while you have it, because it can be taken away at any time. From Jordanne

That the greatest gift we can give is to love be loved in return. That there is always good and evil and hope and despair. That what we say and write has power and That man is capable of evil and great goodness. The goodness is to be treasured. From Rachel

Hitler sucks. He cause horror even to his own people. From Jenni Elyse

This book made me wonder if I would or could respond in the same way under such pressure. Would I treat those that need help the same way? From Josanna

Just ONE thing? I think I'm going to go with words and how important it is for us to use them for good. Even if our words don't do anything that will change the world, they may change someone's personal world. Does that make sense? For example, Liesel's words didn't change the outcome of WWII. They didn't change Hitler. But they changed Rudy's world, Han's and Rosa's worlds, the mayor's wife's world, and Max's world. We all have that same power. From Britney

I thought it was interesting to think about the German side of the war and to consider how they felt and suffered also. From Erin

Wow. I sounded so elegant. Thanks and thanks for coming to book club and leading the readalong. I would love to do it again with another book. Maybe a classic like Christmas Carol would be fun? Happy reading!

Wow, what a ride. When an invisible barrier suddenly descends on this small town, how will the people handle things? Let's just say... not very well! Would it be giving away too much if I say... pretty much EVERYONE dies! And all written in...